Continuing to reread these. This one was fine? Mostly I thought there were too many new characters and too many plotlines. There are four major plotlines interweaving through this, and I think one should have been cut. And I think that one should have been Dryditch fever at Redwall, given it's entire lack of connection to the other three plotlines (which at least converged at the end). Also, because the narrative jumped around so much, I don't know that you spend enough time with any one group of characters to get that invested, particularly in the case of a plotline centred around the outbreak of a deadly illness. I mean, sure there's some tension, but it's hard to get too worked up about how ill ny given character is if you've only spent half a dozen pages with them (at most), none of them particuarly significant.

Basically, entertaining enough, but I think the balance is off in this one.

The fifth Redwall novel, Salamandastron is the story of a badger maid, a blue-eyed ferret, and a plague at Redwall. Mara is a young badger maid who escapes her home, Salamandastron, and her overbearing adoptive father. As Mara begins her quest throughout Mossflower country, meeting up with Guosssom shrews and members from Redwall, Salamandastron falls under attack by a disarming, ruthless blue-eyed ferret. Meanwhile, a young squirrel named Samkim leaves Redwall in pursuit of the sword of Martin the Warrior. Giving us our first clear look at Salamandastron and the Long Patrol, Salamandastron expands the world of the Redwall novels yet again. The adventures and battles manage to be both realistic and exciting, and the strong-willed characters are compelling and show a lot of growth within the course of the book. While not particularly outstanding, this is one of the better and perhaps more famous Redwall novels and I recommend it and enjoy rereading it.

Salamandastron features some of my favorite characters and one of my favorite battle sequences. Mara and Samkim are both young and immature when the story begins. When they leave their homes on quests, both mature, learn, and eventually prove themselves to themselves, others, and even to Martin the Warrior, whose guiding influence is still felt in Mossflower. As a result, this book makes for a unique yet realistic coming of age story, with interest characters that the reader can identify with and aspire toward. The battle at the end of the book is one of Jacques' best: both terrifying and exciting, both horrible and exultant, he captures the dual nature of war, battle, death, and what it is that drives creatures to fight. Jacques also refuses to shy away from character death, a decision that I applaud. It makes for a darker, more difficult and mature novel, but it also makes the story more meaningful and realistic.

The actual events of Mara and Samkim's journeys don't stand out to me, and as a whole this isn't the most memorable Redwall novel. Unlike Mossflower, compelling secondary characters are lacking (although the hares of the Long Patrol are wonderful); the journeys aren't particularly vast or exciting. The majority of the exciting chases and perilous climbs are delegated to the Redwall side story and are thus less interesting or heart-stopping than they could be. The Guosssom shrews made good companions, but beyond that the bulk of this book doesn't stand out as either amusing, exciting, or compelling. Only near the end, when the pieces come together and Mara and Samkim meet, does the book really start to get good.

It is, however, by no means bad. Jacques is still a solid writer, and while some of his constant themes (adventurers, food, riddles, new peoples) are a bit toned down here, his characters are interesting and he writes a strong plot and brings it to a well-rounded, attention-grabbing conclusion. The book also serves to peek our interest in Salamandastron itself, providing enough insight to interest the reader and enough story to make him want to know more. I do recommend this book, although there are other Redwall novels that I enjoy more, and I like coming back to and rereading this one.

Another great book in the Redwall series. I have had a particular infatuation with Jacques’ depictions of the badgers since Mossflower, so I was definitely looking forward to this novel, and it didn’t disappoint. Very little of the story takes place at Redwall Abby, that might be a negative for some, but it didn’t detract from the story for me. I really enjoy the characters of the badger lords of Salamandastron; their martial excellence, internal codes of honor, sense of duty, the mystery surrounding their lives, and their strange connection with fate. All of these things, in addition to their near-invincibility, make them larger than life characters in these stories.

Another element of the story that I appreciate is the consistent treatment of Martin the Warrior’s sword. This novel is the first time that the sword is used for evil (unless I’m forgetting something), so the meaning of the sword is stressed, that it isn’t a magical device, it isn’t good or evil, nor does it make the holder into a warrior; but rather it is a tool that must be treated with respect and if the wielder uses it with good intentions, then it is capable of doing great things, as it does so consistently. The stress is placed on the integrity of the wielder, which transcends the series, rather than the sword, which is merely an object within the series.

I also enjoy the development of the world of Redwall that continually takes place in these books. New characters and places are introduced in this book and I hope to see some of them again.

Something that these books do for me, and I believe this is a feature of great art in general, is that they are inspiring in one way or another. These are fun books but they also leave me thinking about the heroes and the kind of individuals that they are. The efforts of heroes like Thrugg the otter are particularly potent to me, his (semi)lone quest to the dangerous and distant north is not a light thing, but he did it because the lives of many others were dependent on it (I don’t really do spoilers in these reviews so I’ll leave it at that). The point is, characters like Thrugg, Urthstripe, and Samkin take great personal risks to do what is right and sometimes it costs them greatly, and this is part of what makes them so inspiring to me, true heroes.

He may not have a knocker on his nose, but 3 of these stars are for Dumble the Dormouse and that's all I have to say about THAT!

I love the Redwall books! They are just so fun to read. That is all!

It's always fun to return to Redwall for a visit. The descriptions of delicious sounding food and drink, the straightforward characters, the slightly twisty plot, and the simple writing all make it a comfortable world and story to return to.
Salamandastron and the hares have always been favourites of mine in the Redwall universe and it's always fun to read about them.
Ferahgo and his son are decent villains and crafty enough to make the novel tense at times, even though we know that things will always end well. I appreciate Jacques being cruel enough to kill off some of his characters (albeit side ones) despite this being a children's book - like Brother Hal's abrupt and brutal death.

"Disappointing. For a book called Salamandastron, the wasn't enough about the lore of the place. There wasn't anything. It was also too split up between different characters, more than any other Redwall book. You'd have a cliffhanger and not get back to it for four chapters. Bad job, two stars. Didn't care about any of the characters either because you didn't spend enough time with anyone to get to know them."

Holy shit, this was good! I read a couple of these as a kid, and was thinking about 'em so I decided to revisit. I went with Salamandastron because I hadn't read it before, and its got badgers in it.

I'll admit, I considered giving up after my first listening session. It's narrated by a full cast, and they go hard with the voices and accents. But once I got used to it, I found the narration to be one of the strongest parts. It's amazing how much personality they were able to give the characters through voice work. Even the songs were good, most of them at least.

As for the story, there's a lot going on. I've heard that this is one of the "busier" Redwall books, and I can see why. There's a weasel army sieging the badgers and hares at Salamandastron, there's a plague at Redwall, there's two pairs of critters going off to find MacGuffins, and another pair going off a hero's journey. It can be a lot to keep track of, especially for a kid's books.

Now, I did have two criticisms of the book, which seem to be shared by other readers of the series. The first is that the morality can be overly simplistic. The good guys are the mice, otters, moles, hares, badgers, and shrews. They're good because they're mice, otters, et. al. They win because they're good. The bad guys are rats, weasels, and foxes. They're bad because they're rats, weasels, and foxes, and the lose because they're bad. Somewhat related, is that the Redwall books definitely follow a formula. I don't remember many of the details of the books I read a while ago, but all the journeys, encounters, sieges, and battles did feel very familiar to me. I think I'll listen to a couple more of the better-reviewed ones, then call my revisit to Redwall complete. End it on a strong note.

“Eulalia!”
—

It has been a long time since I’ve done a Redwall novel, but we’re back and man, this was a good entry to come back on. For those not in the know, Salamandastron is the mountain fortress ruled by the Badger Lords; this book isn’t the origin story of the first Badger Lords (that’s “Lord Brocktree”, the only one I’d read before this Book Diary). But it is a story that centers not just on Redwall Abbey, but also the mountain fortress, and the characters we start with are actually badgers, not mice.

Actually… I don’t know if any of the main characters are mice? There’s a baby doormouse, I guess, but other than that, our leads are… badgers, hares, an otter, and a squirrel. That’s a nice change of pace. There are still mice, of course, and Redwall is still important; there’s an entire Plot about trying to save them from a deadly disease, and another about retrieving the sword of Martin the Warrior. These feel almost, well, not important to the overall story, though?

That doesn’t make them bad, though, just a little odd in the story.

Ferahgo is a great villain; he’s a little too ‘I’m EVIL HEHE!” but he’s also surprisingly clever in many instances. Maybe that’s just Jacques trying to make sure he’s still alive by the end of the book to fight the heroes, but it’s good to have a competent villain that comes up with plans that work, or would work if it hadn’t been for circumstances he can’t foresee. It is a little strange that he’s called ‘Ferahgo the Assassin’ when he’s more of a warband leader. His preference for knives and such probably has something to do with it.

It’s a great Redwall book and I think it wouldn’t be a bad starting point if you hadn’t read any others. It’s also interesting if you have read the other books, as it’s a change of pace in some ways.

I have trouble saying that title, though.

message sent while listening to salamandastron:
the redwall audiobook is very funny because the transition between all the chapters is this jaunty folk music but redwall can actually be kind of brutal so the end of the chapter will be like "as he was dying he said don't turn me over i don't want you to see my broken body, and then he died in his arms and the mouse sat sobbing cradling him like an infant" and then immediately the music goes doo doo doo doo

Also I miss brian jacques narrating

A great Redwall novel that doesn't fall as much to the foibles of children's literature i.e. cringy kid's dialogue and trying to make things overly cute. A great use of separate storylines and being able to hold tension in a battle that lasts the entire book is an admirable feat.

I sound like a broken record talking about Redwall, but I don't care: this is one of the best in the series (just like all the others). The characters are realized, and the plot is well-structured, but it has distinct moments to it that elevate it. The B-Plot is a rare one to feel just as tense, yet unique and separate from the A-Plot. I think one of the best parts of this book is that I struggle with what else to say for risk of spoilers, which I never want to include in a review. Seriously, there aren't many books in this series I can confidently say have moments you don't want spoiled, but this book's got 'em. So in conclusion: good plot, good characters, good moments, great book. This is a top fiver.